Lyndon-Olpe rivalry still strong

For years, Olpe and Lyndon waged some great gridiron battles with a Lyon County League title hanging in the balance.

When Lyndon left the league for the Flint Hills League, however, the rivalry might have appeared to have lost a little of the fire. Hardly.

Now when the two schools meet, something arguably bigger is on the line: a spot in the Class 2-1A playoffs.

"We’ve played them in districts the past couple of cycles and I know they’ve kind of been a historic rival prior to that," Lyndon coach Rod Stallbaumer said. "So we’re pretty well aware of what we’re going to get from Olpe. They’re extremely well coached and are going to be in the right places both offensively and defensively. They’re fundamentally sound, block well and tackle well, and that wins them a lot of football games."

Both teams have done their share of winning so far this season. Lyndon enters Friday night’s road clash at 4-0 and ranked No. 5 in Class 2-1A, while Olpe is 3-1.

How they’ve reached their respective records, however, is as different as night and day.

Lyndon has yet to be tested at all. Through four games, the Tigers have outscored their foes 219-6 with the lone touchdown coming in the 55-6 season-opening win against Mission Valley. That blowout was followed by routs of 63-0, 48-0 and 53-0.

After averaging 38 points per game last year, the offensive prowess the Tigers have shown could hardly be classified as a surprise. That is, until one considers Lyndon entered the season having to replace 1,000-yard rusher Nick Walsh and 1,000-yard passer Jordan Tillman.

"We definitely had some key losses — over 2,000 yards of total offense," Stallbaumer said. "But we had some guys kind of waiting in the wings for their opportunity. They’ve stepped in and done a great job. We had guys we had very comfortable stepping into those roles and we feel good about what they’ve been able to do up to this point."

Indeed, they have. Junior Joe Walsh has stepped in at quarterback and completed 67.9 percent of his passes, while throwing for 658 yards and six touchdowns. The ground game has produced more than 1,100 yards with 11 different backs contributing to the total, led by Skyler Farwell’s 333 yards and 11 touchdowns. Cameron Woodruff has been the top receiver with 19 catches for 370 yards and four scores.

While things have come easily, Stallbaumer is eager to see how his team responds to a challenge, which he knows will come Friday.

"It definitely adds some uncertainty," Stallbaumer said of not being tested. "But I talked to our kids that it’s not other people’s job to prepare us, it’s our job to prepare ourselves. We’ve been very critical in film and things that against better teams what would happen. Going into a game like this, it’s something to figure out and see where we’re at and measure ourselves against Olpe, which has been battle tested."

That the Eagles have. After dropping a 35-7 decision to Class 3A Sedgwick to start the season, Olpe has won three straight. Two of those wins were come-from-behind one-point contests, a 15-14 win against 3A Wellsville and a 13-12 decision last week against previously unbeaten McLouth.

In both games, an extra-point from Isaac Hall proved to be the difference, and in each game, the Eagles came up with fourth-quarter scores to pull out the victory.

"We’ve played some teams where three of the four, we’d never played before so that was kind of unfamiliar territory for us," Olpe coach Chris Schmidt said. "I thought our kids responded well. Sedgwick was a good team that showed our weaknesses, and I think that helped us out. The next three teams, we had to get better in areas and we did, and I think the same thing will have to happen this week."

Brandon Baumgardner and Bo Krueger have combined to throw for 460 yards and four touchdowns, while Mitch Argabright’s 226 rushing yards and 147 receiving yards lead the Eagles.

Schmidt does hope that being in those tightly contested games will be beneficial for Friday’s contest.

"We hope those games have helped prepare for Lyndon, but they’re a different animal," Schmidt said. "We’ve been in some tough situations and have had to come back and hopefully that experience helps us out if we’re put in that situation. Lyndon probably hasn’t shown very much because they haven’t had to. I guess in our regard, I’d like to make them have to do some things they haven’t done. But it’s going to be a challenge."

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